‘What Batley and Spen taught me about standing up to divisive politics’

The Batley and Spen by-election in July 2021 has been described as one of the most unpleasant of modern times. It certainly felt like that to me, as the Labour candidate at the centre of it.

Having taken the very difficult decision to stand in the seat which had been represented by my sister Jo Cox, who was murdered by a right-wing extremist in 2016, I knew more than most the very real dangers of divisive politics and extremism. But I didn’t anticipate how toxic the 2021 by-election would be.

Maybe I was naïve in adopting my usual positive and optimistic approach, but there were 15 candidates on the ballot paper – none of whom even lived in the constituency, and I saw some truly awful aggressive and intimidating behaviour which was deeply depressing and wholly unfair on the people in the community where I had lived all my life.

George Galloway did everything he could to amplify the aggressive, intimidatory behaviour from some of his supporters, and to exploit community tensions over international issues rather than focusing on the local issues I was campaigning on and the importance of having an MP with deep connections to the area.

At one point I was chased and surrounded by a group of men while out campaigning, heckled over my support for LGBT rights, with people filming on their phones. It was a scary experience – not least for my colleagues who were with me, but also of course for my family and friends who saw the incident on social media before they knew if I was OK.

Other Labour campaigners were attacked in the street with eggs, and there were numerous incidents of shouting and driving round in cars intimidating campaigners. We won – narrowly – but the attempt by Galloway to stoke division and anger left scars, raising tensions not lowering them in the place I was proud to go on to represent.

There were also candidates from right wing parties, and at times there was the classic unholy alliance of the far right and far left coming together to pit communities against each other.

READ MORE: ‘Unity or division’: Starmer’s message to voters in Gorton and Denton

Galloway isn’t standing in Gorton and Denton. But he has done his best to have an impact there, endorsing the Green Party candidate on the grounds that “Labour and Reform must lose”. Green leader Zack Polanski could have rejected Galloway’s support and said that he did not want his party’s campaign to be associated with Galloway’s divisive extremism – but that’s not what he chose to do. In fact, the Greens put out a statement saying “we agree on the need to beat Reform and Labour” – and not saying a single thing they disagree with Galloway’s party on. I have a good relationship with my Green colleagues in Parliament, so was disappointed to see this.

In fact, there’s a parallel with Reform here. When their candidate Matt Goodwin was endorsed by Tommy Robinson, Goodwin and Nigel Farage did everything they could to avoid condemning him and disavowing the support of an unapologetic far-right racist. They were set a moral test, and they failed it.

What I learned in my by-election in Batley and Spen is that you must stay focused on running a positive campaign, you must not be distracted, nor must you be intimidated from standing up to your opponents, whoever they are. You must focus on your candidate and the type of politics you believe in – that’s why I have found it easy to knock on doors for Angeliki Stogia – she seems like exactly the kind of person we need in Parliament and her message of ‘Unity Against Division’ is exactly what the country needs right now.

It is reminiscent of Jo’s message of having ’more in common than that which divides us’ – something I still believe in passionately and something I dearly hope the good people of Gorton and Denton will embrace when they go to the polls today.

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